Life

Sisterhood and Strength in Boulder

For Jamie Twedt, IRONMAN is a journey of spreading awareness for ovarian cancer.

by Lisa Dolbear

Some athletes launch their IRONMAN journey out of a sense of adventure, or perhaps powered by athletic genes itching to be leveraged. For others, like Thornton Colo.'s Jamie Twedt, it’s a different kind of gene that drives her forward in multisport—the BRCA1 gene, responsible for breast and ovarian cancer.

Though Twedt's grandmother and mother both have had breast cancer, she says it took seeing her sister, Dawn, fight through ovarian cancer twice in the past three years to finally get tested herself. Twedt, 45, has tested positive for the gene, but it wasn’t this prognosis that pushed her to do her first IRONMAN 70.3 in Boulder, Colo. last month, or to train for the full-distance IRONMAN Boulder this weekend. It was the strength and perseverance she’s seen in her sister over the years.

"Dawn is my daily inspiration when it comes to training, especially during tough workouts when I’m burnt out. If she can go through all the treatments that come with fighting cancer, then I can darn well do every workout I need to in order to be ready for this race," Twedt says.

It was a natural next step to link her training to a fundraising effort through the IRONMAN Foundation. By race day, Twedt will end up having raised close to $10,000 for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, as her company, Pulte Mortgage, is matching all donations. But she has even bigger goals: "If I can get even one person to be proactive and take the test for the BRCA1 gene, I will have accomplished what I really want to do—help people prevent their own families from going through this awful experience." As part of her own prevention plan, Twedt had a hysterectomy in January, and plans to do a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery early next year.

While Twedt’s IRONMAN debut will be in the name of her sister and creating awareness for ovarian cancer, her first taste of tri came last year as part of an ongoing quest to stay in shape. "Five years ago I was really unhappy and overweight," she says. "I didn’t like who I’d become, so I started setting fitness goals to get on a better track. Last year’s goal was to do a triathlon."

Or 18—it was love at first swim, bike, run for Twedt, who did a race nearly every weekend of the summer. After riding with co-workers who were training for IRONMAN, their war stories got to her. "Listening to them was so inspiring. I knew I had to do one," she recalls.

Twedt credits her current success to her supportive training partners, friends and family—even if some of them don’t realize how much work actually goes into preparing for a 140.6-mile race. "I was recently home in South Dakota with my aunt and uncle, telling them about a long ride I did the previous weekend," she says. "When I said it was 65 miles, they looked at each other and said, 'That’s like getting in the car and driving from Mitchell to Sioux Falls!'"

Nobody knows the long road better than the IRONMAN in training, and despite Twedt’s rock-solid inspiration, she too suffers from burn out and injury. While training for the recent IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder, her left knee took a hit just a week before race day. "During the race I could feel the pain on the bike, but was encouraged when I got into T2 only 10 minutes behind my goal time. I pushed on the run, but ultimately ended up with a huge knot in my right calf as I tried to overcompensate for the knee pain." The discomfort left her walking 12 miles to the finish line—way past her goal time— but spot on her mission to motivate others. "I refused to quit, no matter how bad it hurt, because I know my sister can’t quit her fight."

In true IRONMAN spirit, Twedt regards her first IRONMAN 70.3 as a "PR I can come back and crush next year," and has remained focused on the bigger picture of channeling her sister’s strength. "Dawn has a ‘Let’s kick cancer’s ass!’ attitude, which I try to remember when I get into tough spots."

Twedt gave her finisher's medal to Dawn, thanking her for her strength: "She said it was probably the easiest medal she ever got, but after I reminded her of all the treatments she’s endured and the impact they’ve had on her physically and emotionally, she said it was actually probably the hardest medal she’d ever worked for."

On race day this weekend, Twedt will call upon the fighter Dawn has instilled in her. And what does the woman behind the scenes have to say about her sister's feat?

"I’m flattered to be her inspiration, but she also inspires so many. I see something in her that’s much bigger than IRONMAN. By raising money to find a cure for ovarian cancer, she has also increased awareness. And as we all know, knowledge is power."